I can imagine this kind of criminal behavior increasing exponentially in SHTF. Perhaps from folks you may never have expected to act in such a way. Some people just need a good excuse and others act out of complete desperation.

The suspect is described as a black male with a deep voice. He’s about 6’2” with dark colored eyes and was wearing a black ski mask, a dark green hooded sweatshirt, dark colored gloves and dark colored cargo style pants.

“I need to feed my family”?

Given the sheer number of Free Sh** recipients in this country – signing up for welfare is almost a life goal for some – I call BS on the above…

More like “I need to feed my drug habit”.

Edit: Anyone in this country who thinks anyone is starving need only go to CreatureMart on the first of every month and judge the size of these land whales for themselves, loading up their shopping carts (yes, plural) with steaks, lobsters, deep-fried everything… in my opinion, a great many of them could use a bit less “feeding”. Then there are those so morbidly obese they have to use those little electric carts…

I need to feed my family is the come-on line muggers use. They act like a panhandler to get their victims to pull out their wallets begging for money. Then it’s easier to grab the wallet, knock down the victim and get away. In Philly the alternative method was for the mugger to carry a razor. After they knock the victem down they cut open the pocket containing your wallet (or all pockets) with the razor.

Like Malgus said (right now) there are plenty of free ways to get food, this guy was repeating his old line.

Exactly. The question asked by muggers is meant to mislead and divert attention. Like asking what time it is. Who still goes around asking what time it is?

Mugger/Bad Guy plants himself in your path and asks “Excuse me sir, what time is it”? Your best course of action is to take your left hand, put it in his face and shove – hard – and go right through him. They don’t work solo most of the time, so you can probably bet there’s one or more baddies on your flanks or behind you.

Shove hard, clear the path and then either make a break for it, or sidestep and clear your weapon from its holster, because chances are there’s one or more baddies in close proximity.

The razor thing you cited – there were baddies in certain Eastern European countries who preyed upon Western tourists. After awhile, the tourists grew wary and started carrying all their important stuff in backpacks as a countermeasure – no more snatch and grab for the baddies. So they responded by carrying straight razors as a counter-counter measure – they’d slash open the bottom of the bag from behind and all the contents would fall on the ground. They’d snatch whatever looked to be most valuable and run – the tourist would be stuck there. Either chase the baddie and leave all your remaining stuff on the ground, or don’t chase him and collect up your stuff.

So, for awhile, there were backpacks on the market that used cut-resistant Kevlar thread in the bottom and sides of the backpacks as a counter-counter-counter measure. Pricey, but no more slash and grab.